Puyo Puyo is arguably the second biggest puzzler out there. Nothing can really unseat the grand daddy of them all, Tetris, but many games have since tried. Many of would be usurpers of the throne have failed miserably in their attempts to engage the gamers out there in a long lasting, yet simple, gameplay mechanic which is essential to any puzzle game if it wants to last more than five minutes of playing time.

Enter Puyo Puyo. First of all, it's great to see the series getting some serious releases outside of Japan. In the past, Sega released the game under the Sonic branding as "Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine" and that didn't even last more than a single game. If you wanted real Puyo Puyo, you pretty much had to import. I've been a fan of the series for a while now, mainly an import for the Game Boy Color as well as the US release of Puyo Pop for the Game Boy Advance. I was curious if the game would give me a compelling reason to play on the console as opposed to the portable, where puzzle games obviously would dominate.

As an impulse, I decided to give the Gamecube release of Puyo Pop Fever a shot. I figured the risk was low since: a) I've loved every version I have played before, b) Sonic Team was fully behind the title and, most importantly, c) it is solidly priced in the 'budget' category. Besides, it's been a while since I've had a decent new puzzler out there.

Puyo Pop Fever for the Gamecube will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played the series before or have tried one of the many knock off games out there. The basics of any Puyo Puyo game involve none other then the Puyo themselves. Puyo are basically little blobs with eyes that vary mainly in color. Not exactly a 'character' you can get behind, however you can easily see how little jellies with eyes have infinitely more personality that a Tetris piece.

The Puyo fall from the top of the playfield as we have seen in many puzzle games before this one. In previous Puyo games I have played, the sets of falling Puyo were only in pairs of two. In Fever, sometimes the sets fall in three or even a giant blob of four Puyo at once. Obviously, this fact alone already greatly enhances the gameplay possibilities compared to previous efforts.

The basic Puyo game is generally a two player versus affair. The story mode, for example, always pits you against an opponent. The versus strategy basically means that your actions have offensive and defensive results. Completed a match or chain and, depending on the strength of the move, a number of 'garbage' Puyo will be dropped upon your foe. 'Garbage' Puyo are basically neutral Puyo which do not match any color. These tend to block you from completing your carefully planned out chains or just completely end your round if there are enough of them. Garbage Puyo can be eliminated by clearing Puyo that are touching the offensive Puyo.

Garbage Puyo attacks can also be countered. As you clear Puyo and perform chain reactions, an attack meter is displayed at the top of the screen. Continued clears and chains build up this meter. During this time, your opponent will surely be chugging away themselves at their collection of Puyo. This will cut down your Garbage Puyo attack and visa versa. If your opponent is about to drown you in garbage, you better throw down a few chains of your own to limit or even reverse their attack. It is a very deep system that can easily turn the tide of any match. Certain defeat can be avoided just as your opponent can pull off an annoying upset at the last possible moment.

Not only did they tweak the basic gameplay mechanics, but they also added in an additional bonus feature when you complete an "All Clear", which is basically clearing out all of the Puyo that are littering the playfield. When you clear out all of the Puyo, a special arrangement of Puyo fall and allow you to earn tons of bonus points if you can engage the correct chain reaction to clear out the formation.

Continue the great performance and you will end up in 'Fever' mode, which is essentially an extension of the 'All Clear' bonus. In Fever mode, you are presented with a time limit to zap away as many bonus formations as you can. Clear out the formations completely and score a veritable assload of points which will surely choke your opponent with garbage Puyo.

Graphically, Puyo Pop Fever is easily the best looking game featuring the little blobs that you have ever seen. It's not a terribly earth shattering revelation. The Puyo games have never been used as a showcase of any hardware's graphical might. However, the Gamecube game is still pleasant to look at. Bright hues are abundant throughout the title, from the actual gameplay itself to the saccharine character artwork which breaks up the action between rounds. Even the menu screens are bright and bubbly. If you can't stand seeing anything brighter than olive drab or you yearn for the early brown days of the PSone, you will hate this game.

The Puyo playfield looks great when populated by the colorful little blobs and the detail is the best the series has ever seen. To spice things up a bit, Sonic Team added some flashy background effects and 3D rotation when a chain is set off. The camera starts to move around the Puyo and, obviously, the bigger the chain, the bigger the special effects. I thought it would be more distracting when I heard about the feature, but it works fine in the game and adds a nice little 'umph' to the overall look to the game.

The audio could be seen as the weak link in the game. The music is par for the course for the series. I'm not a freak about the music, but I've heard far more offensive tunes from many other titles. It's light and catchy background music that fits the quirky Japanese style of the game.

The vocals in the game can be both in English or Japanese. I tend to flip on the Japanese language track mostly since the dialogue is pretty light and sounds pretty bad in English. The Japanese tracks, while overdone and kind of grating at times, is still better than English track. Although it's times like this where I find myself wondering if there is some Japanese guy saying the opposite over there. I'm sure the Japanese track is equally lame to the native speaker of the language. I'll buy into the kitsch for now though, especially after learning my lesson with the DoA2's English track. "Good vibrations!"

Puyo Pop Fever is by far one of the best console puzzle games out there. It's a fun single player game, multiplayer game and has endless replay value due to the Endless Puyo modes after you have completed the standard story modes. If you can't stand anything that is brighter than your average Resident Evil game, then you may want to pass on Puyo Pop Fever. However, for those of you who are looking for a great puzzle game at a nice price, then you can't possibly go wrong with Puyo Pop Fever on the Gamecube.